La graine et le mulet 2007

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The wonderful thing about Hafsia Herzi in The Secret of the Grain...is the way she and the character tiptoe around the story's edges for a while, taking their time and easing onto the audience's radar. Read more

Dan Zak, Washington Post: A ponderous tragedy about put-upon manhood? A verite snoop into cultures that are sexually mingled but publicly uneasy? A pill to be swallowed in the name of serious filmgoing? Maybe all of these. Read more

Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: Time stretches out to the limits of endurance, Slimane's and ours, and there are moments toward the conclusion of this picture when you will want to scream and throw things at the screen, but it's mesmerizing. When it does end, suddenly, it feels a little Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: The Secret Of The Grain is more complicated than it sounds, less geared toward uplift than in revealing the fault-lines within this sprawling, multi-generational family and between their immigrant culture and their French hosts. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: The Secret of the Grain takes one man, his children, their spouses and babies, his ex-wife, his girlfriend, her daughter, and his friends and turns it all into a masterpiece about the strange power of food -- to heal, unite, exasperate. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Rather than observing this family, we feel we are part of it, and that draws us in as nothing else can. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Never sagging, it unfolds over 2 1/2 hours. Nothing is overexplained. Indeed, it takes us time to suss out Slimane's various familial relationships. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: I wish The Secret of the Grain had another title, something that conveys the vibrancy teeming in this great drama of daily life -- something less grainy. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Give some patience to The Secret of the Grain and the rewards are there for the reaping. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: The French-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche is that rare thing at the movies these days: an intelligent humanist. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: [Director] Kechiche digs a good story out of the flux, and, in the movie's final forty minutes, the suspense is terrific. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: The cast is solid, with standout performances by first-timer Habib Boufares as Slimane. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The Secret of the Grain never slows, always engages, may continue too long, but ends too soon. It is made of life itself. Read more

Susan Walker, Toronto Star: After two and a half hours, The Secret of the Grain, ends, as arbitrarily as it began. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Read more

Alissa Simon, Variety: An overlong, dramatically unbalanced pic whose emotional wallop gets somewhat diffused. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: French-Tunisian writer-director-actor Abdellatif Kechiche's The Secret of the Grain is a sprawling yet intimate tale set among the Arab working class of the Mediterranean port Sete. Read more